Taipei Eats - Zhongxiao East Road area Part III (忠孝東路)

The night hubby and I arrived into Taipei, we checked into our room at ALoft Hotel Taipei Zhongshan and then ventured out for dinner. We both had been craving for Kiki's since leaving Taipei near the year end in 2012, so of course our first dinner in Taipei after 4 years of longing must be at Kiki's. Hell, we're still craving Kiki's right now T.T

We picked Kiki's Fuxing branch, a 10 minutes walk from MRT Zhongxiao Fuxing Station (忠孝復興站). It was the night of September 15, 2016, right smack on Mid Autumn Festival. The whole city was quieter than usual and many shops were closed for business. So we were counting our blessings that Kiki's was open that night. There was a long line even, and we waited for about 30 minutes to be seated.

Hubby heroically volunteered to stay in line so I could take a walk up and down the street to jog my memory. About a block away on the same side of the street as Kiki's, I spotted a lit up sign for something that looked like dessert. Soon I was staring down in awe of 鮮芋仙 - Meet Fresh's gigantic dessert menu, completely overwhelmed. 

We were in line for dinner, and so I couldn't unleash my inner sweet-tooth monster on desserts...yet. Having exercised great self-restraint, I only got myself and hubby each a winter melon tea (冬瓜茶) with taro balls (芋圓), the store's specialty, instead of the regular boba. Sorry boba fans, but between taro balls and boba, taro will always win hands down.


I handed hubby's to him and taking one sip he gasped, "Holy sh*t this is delicious!" Yup. Uh huh. Folks in California and Australia are infinitely lucky with several Meet Fresh branches. For the rest of us, fond memories are all we have. Here's the flier for the seasonal special shaved ices that we didn't get a chance to try :( *sniff* Read more about Meet Fresh here and here.

Anyway, back to Kiki's. I came back just in time before we were called in for our table. I snapped my phone camera away like crazy until hubby's face distorted. Poor thing.

We ordered drinks to pacify the hangry hubby ^.^ He wanted to try a Taiwanese beer and I got myself a plum juice. I have to say that smoky, tart taste was heavenly. Hubby and I waited for 4 years for this and it was so worth it.

The two of us again exercised great self-restraint. Staying at a hotel makes leftovers a bit inconvenient, so we only ordered three of our favorites and were determined to eat them all: Minced Pork with Preserved Black Beans, the silken tofu, and of course the Spicy Diced Chicken (辣子雞).

Let's just say we met our goal and ate everything we ordered. But then neither of us had any room left for dessert at Meet Fresh. Le sigh...

When J. arrived into Taipei, she wanted to try Kiki's having heard our gushing excitement all the way from Tokyo. So we happily obliged and took her to the same location. Let's just say she loved everything she ate, especially the Spicy Diced Chicken. In fact, she loved it so much she ordered a second plate of it, which disappeared as quickly as the first. Again, none of us were left with any room in our tummy for dessert at Meet Fresh.

On our last night in Taipei, the three of us contemplated a soup dumpling dinner at Din Tai Fung and were informed there would be a 1hr+ wait. F*ck that. J. confessed she was craving for even more Kiki's, and hubby and I didn't bother protesting. I told you that place is addictive!

So off we went, back to Kiki's again for the 3rd time in 4 nights xD This time, we were hungry and went all out. In addition to our usual favorites, we tried other dishes like Beef in Hot Oil (水煮牛), mapo tofu (J.'s go-to dish), sauteed string beans, Taiwanese beef noodles, and an un-pictured dandan noodles (another of J.'s favorite). Everything was delicious and deeply satisfying, much so that the moment we got on the plane, we started craving Kiki's again. Le sigh. We promised ourselves a much longer stay in Taipei next time, just to get all the Kiki cravings out of our system, if that's even possible.

See my previous posts:

- Taipei Eats - Zhongxiao East Road area (忠孝東路)

- Taipei Eats - Zhongxiao East Road area Part II (忠孝東路)